One of the Boys (album)
| Last album = '' '' | This album = '' '' | Next album = '' '' |Artist= Katy Perry }} ''One of the Boys ''is the second studio album, and the first mainstream album by Katy Perry. The album was first released on June 17, 2008 in the United States and Canada. The theme of the songs on the album are very different, and more pop, than Perry's first self-titled album, Katy Hudson. One of the Boys received two Grammy nominations for Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for "I Kissed a Girl" and "Hot N Cold". On February 6, 2009 the album was certified platinum for shipping and selling 1.2 million copies by the RIAA. Background Perry has stated that she had been working on the album since she was nineteen years old. During the making of the album Perry went through many struggles such as being dropped from two record labels and having two canceled albums. During this time Perry had "written between sixty-five and seventy songs". Perry collaborated with notable producers Greg Wells, Lukasz Gottwald, Dave Stewart, Max Martin among others on the album. Perry co-wrote every song on the album as well as writing 3 of the songs herself. When talking about the songs on the album Perry said that she released "Ur So Gay" as the first single because it "was meant to be an introduction and a background" and "the album will have a lot of the same characteristics". She has said that lyrics are important to her and so there "will be lots of storytelling", some songs are meant to "make you cry, but there are others to make you dance and sing". Critical reception At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has received an average score of 47, based on 18 reviews. The album received positive reviews from Billboard magazine who claimed, "not since Jagged Little Pill has a debut album been so packed with potential hits." Blender described the album as "Perry’s creative-writing-class punch lines don’t always justify her self-congratulatory drag-queen tone. But she hiccups quirkily enough, and myriad big-name producers (from Dr. Luke to Glen Ballard) keep the new-wave synth hooks hopping." More often, critical reception ranged from mixed to negative reviews. Stephen Thomas Erlewin of Allmusic gave the album two out of five stars noting that the album "sinks to crass, craven depths that turn One of the Boys into a grotesque emblem of all the wretched excesses of this decade." On the album, Uncut wrote "Gwen Stefani should be nervous." while Slant Magazine wrote that "Perry doesn't possess the grit or vocal prowess to follow through, and the title track is like No Doubt's 'Just a Girl' sans personality and conviction". The NME wrote that "Madonna and Perez Hilton may be fans, then, but if you’ve got even a passing interest in actually enjoying a record, don’t buy this one". | rev2 = The A.V. Club | rev2Score = (D-) | rev3 = Blender | rev3Score = | rev4 = The Boston Globe | rev4Score = (mixed) | rev5 = The Guardian | rev5Score = | rev6 = The New York Times | rev6Score = (mixed) | rev7 = NME | rev7Score = (3/10) | rev8 = Robert Christgau | rev8Score = | rev9 = Rolling Stone | rev9Score = | rev10 = PopMatters | rev10Score = (4/10) | rev11 = Slant Magazine | rev11Score = | rev12 = Spin | rev12Score = }} Singles *Ur So Gay was released as digitally as promotional single in November 2007. It was to help introduce Perry to the music world. It is often confused as an official single, but it's just meant to be a "soft hello", according to Perry. *The album's lead single, "I Kissed a Girl" was released in early May and topped the charts, becoming a comercial sucess. It topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart, becoming the 1000th chart-topper of the rock era. Including the United States, Australia, Canada, Irealand, and the United Kingdom, it has topped the charts in more than 30 countries. It has sold over 3.8 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of June 2010 and was included in the 2010 Guniess World Records ''book. *The second single, "Hot N Cold", charted after the album's release due to strong digital downloads. It was released in early September, and peaked at number 3 on the US charts. This made the song Perry's second consecutive top 5 single. On November 14, the song became Perry's first number 1 on radio airplay. It also became number one on the ''iTunes comprehensive charts. It is officially one of the ten best-selling digitally downloaded songs of all time. It has sold over 4.4 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of June 2010 and was included in the 2010 Guniess World Records ''book. *"Thinking of You" is the fourth single off the album, but was originally planned to be the first single, but was later scrapped for "I Kissed a Girl" due to its quick popularity. A video for "Thinking of You" was uploaded onto Youtube in late April 2008, but the video was removed due to a re-make of the video after the single was re-released as the fourth international single from the album. Perry shot the second video with director Melina Matsoukas in the first week of December 2008 and the video was released soon after on December 23. The track peaked at #14 on the ''iTunes comprehensive chart and peaked at #29 on the Billboard Hot 100 on the week of February 12, 2009 where it remained for the next two weeks before dropping to #31 in its seventh week on the chart. It has sold over 800,000 digital downloads in the U.S. *"Waking Up in Vegas" is the official fourth and final single from the album. It was sent to radio on April 21 in the U.S. It was released to Australian radio on March 23, where it became the fourth most added song in its release week. Perry performed it on American Idol on May 13, 2009, and resulted in a surge of sales for the song and boosted it all the way to number two on the iTunes comprehensive chart. The music video was shot by Joseph Kahn during March 2009 in Las Vegas and officially premiered on the iTunes store in the U.S. and Australia on April 28, 2009. The song has sold over 1.77 million digital downloads in the U.S. as of June 2010. Tracklisting List of international editions of One of the Boys Category:Albums